News Bulletin

FEB 21 2014

Getting Their Act Together: Sindh Promises Its Children a Better Future

Sindh’s major political parties came together at the Pearl Continental on Thursday to sign a charter to improve education in Sindh by achieving two goals — ensure 100 per cent enrolment in Sindh, so that every child between the ages of five and 16 is in school and to improve the teaching quality of Sindhi, Urdu and Mathematics. Keeping in mind his position as the provincial education minister, it was fitting that Alif Ailaan campaign director Mosharraf Zaidi asked Nisar Khuhro to be the first one to speak at the ceremony.

Article 25-A of the Constitution provides the right but after the 18th Amendment making education a provincial subject there has been no provincial legislation. School Education Department Secretary Abdul Jabbar Shaheen said the draft for the constitutional provision had been approved by the cabinet. He said it would be sent to the assembly very soon. “This legislation will make it the government’s legal responsibility to ensure that every child gets free and compulsory education”, said Shaheen. Shaheen said the draft, which is not public yet, was based on a proposal of the Education Commission Punjab (ECP).

Lahore: Oxfam Pakistan and its partners, We Can and South Asian Partnership-Pakistan, organised the annual children assembly to address fundamental issues concerning education at Aiwan-i-Iqbal on Thursday. The assembly was attended by ministers, government officials, politicians, civil society members, celebrities and media persons. Speaking on the occasion, Education Minister Rana Mashhood said the provincial government was taking innovative initiatives to promote education. “The Right to Education bill will be presented in the Punjab Assembly in the next session.

The newly-appointed Federal Directorate of Education Director General Prof Mahmood Akhter Malik Thursday vowed to revamp, enhance efficiency and restore lost prestige of the department tasked to provide quality education to the masses. He said the FDE was dedicated to teaching and learning, academic excellence, developing a sense of purpose and high achievement with a vision for tomorrow, and said he was determined to accomplish these objectives.

Mirpurkhas: Education Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said the completion of process of teachers’ appointment through National Testing Service (NTS) would help the government to reopen 3200 out of 5000 closed schools. The Sindh government was hiring some 20,000 teachers on merit, he said while speaking on the occasion of distribution ceremony of offer letters among successful candidates through NTS for position of JST in Mirpurkhas division here.

170 school centres have been established in Rawalpindi, where children previously engaged in begging, trash collecting and manual labour at hotels and brick kilns will be enrolled. Rather than have students give fifth grade board exams after five years of primary education, students will sit for the exams after only forty eight months of primary education. 170 female teachers have been hired, and several monitoring and evaluation teams have been formed.

Education Should Be Aligned In Accordance With Industrial NeedsPrimary education in Pakistan needs to be better aligned with the modern, industrial needs of the country. Education is now at the forefront of major public dialogue, and unless action is undertaken within the next five to six years to radically change the dire states of public education, then we will find ourselves facing tremendous difficulty in our future. Complete Story: http://www.express.com.pk/epaper/PoPupwindow.aspx?newsID=1102104329&Issue=NP_ISB&Date=20140221

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